When prestigious plantation owner Cornelius Allen gives his daughter Clarissa’s hand in marriage, she takes with her a gift: Sarah --- her slave and her half-sister. Raised by an educated mother, Clarissa is not the proper southern belle she appears to be with ambitions of loving who she chooses, and Sarah equally hides behind the façade of being a docile house slave as she plots to escape.

Jerene Jarvis Johnston and her husband, Duke, are exemplars of Charlotte, North Carolina’s high society, where old Southern money --- and older Southern secrets --- meet the new wealth of bankers, boom-era speculators, and carpetbagging social climbers. Jerene must prove tireless in preserving the family's legacy, Duke’s fragile honor, and what's left of the dwindling family fortune. But is it too much to ask for one ounce of cooperation from her heedless family?

Spending the summer of 1928 in a big house on the Maine coast with his 10 older cousins and a gaggle of aunts and uncles seems like a dream come true to lonely 13-year-old Richard. But as he wanders through the bustling house, Richard witnesses scenes and conversations not meant for him and watches as the family he adores disintegrates into a tangle of lust, jealousy and betrayal. He soon finds himself drawn into the confusion and forced to cover for his relatives' romantic intrigues.

Grace D’Angelo is a woman at her wits' end, barely managing her job, her rebellious teenager, and the horrifying fact that her lifelong best friend, Leeza, is dying of cancer. When Leeza succumbs to her illness, Grace realizes she must take drastic action to get her life back on track and repair her most precious relationships. She and her daughter move back to their hometown, where she comes to terms with the past, rediscovers the healing power of cooking, and connects with friends old and new.

As the lives and marriages of four couples unfold in surprising ways, we meet Frances Gerety, a young advertising copywriter in 1947. Frances is working on the De Beers campaign and she needs a signature line, so, one night before bed, she scribbles a phrase on a scrap of paper: “A Diamond Is Forever.” And that line changes everything.

On the last night of 1937, 25-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker, happens to sit down at the neighboring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a year-long journey into the upper echelons of New York society --- where she will have little to rely upon other than a bracing wit and her own brand of cool nerve.

From the unique perspective of David Sedaris comes a new book of essays taking his readers on a bizarre and stimulating world tour. From the perils of French dentistry to the eating habits of the Australian kookaburra, from the squat-style toilets of Beijing to the particular wilderness of a North Carolina Costco, we learn about the absurdity and delight of a curious traveler's experiences.

Before F. Scott Fitzgerald was a literary darling, he was a young WWI army lieutenant who fell hard for a spirited Southern belle named Zelda Sayre. The life he and Zelda would lead together in New York, Long Island, Paris, Hollywood, and on the French Riviera made them legends even in their own time. Set amidst the glamour of the Jazz Age and The Lost Generation’s vivid world abroad, Z brings Zelda and Scott’s romantic, tumultuous, extraordinary journey to life.

Albert Honig’s most constant companions have always been his bees. Deeply acquainted with the workings of the hives, Albert is less versed in the ways of people, especially his friend Claire, whose presence and absence in his life have never been reconciled. When Claire is killed in a seemingly senseless accident during a burglary gone wrong, Albert is haunted by the loss, and by the secrets and silence that hovered between them for so long.

Known through much of her career only to those behind the scenes, Vogue Creative Director Grace Coddington might have remained fashion’s best-kept secret were it not for The September Issue, the acclaimed 2009 documentary that turned Grace into a sudden, reluctant celebrity. With the witty, forthright voice that has endeared her to her colleagues and peers for more than 40 years, Grace now creatively directs the reader through the storied narrative of her life so far.